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FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM APRIL 20, 2017 • THE QUEENS COURIER 27 oped letters & comments CLOSING RIKERS A STEP FORWARD FOR HUMANITY Retaining Rikers Island, I think, will only mean continued isolation, where personal atrocities can more readily occur. Also, renovation of premises and amelioration of violence will take ages. Citizens will be paying enormous taxes. While I don’t relish having prisons in our community, what is more of an issue is our continuing to grow into better maintenance of civilization and humanity. So many heart-wrenching stories of prisoners and guards incurring torture and mutilation behooves me to write this letter. Miriam Miller, Far Rockaway WHO CARES? THEY’RE ONLY PRISONERS! Why is it that there is more concern for criminals than the citizens? Rikers Island keeps prisoners isolated and it has emotional eff ects? Who cares? Th ey are criminals! Th ey are not entitled to feel safe. Now taxpayers are going to spend billions to make inmates feel safer? It makes it diffi cult for families to visit? Sorry, if an inmate did not commit crime, then his family would not have to make this trip. Th e only good investment would be to build a jail further away from taxpayers. QNS user Jake Tremaine OH RATS! MORE RODENT ISSUES IN FLUSHING Th e recent construction behind SkyView Parc that is almost complete has also caused an increase to the rats running around Flushing. Th e rats have also infested the nearby park on Prince Street. Th e rat population will continue to increase if something isn’t done soon, and it aff ects more than the Bland House residents. There are restaurants on Roosevelt Ave across from Bland, and a walking path through the Bland that non-residents take to go from College Point Blvd to Prince Street. You can already see them running around during the day. It’s that bad! Developers in Flushing need to take the rat problem into consideration in the future. Th ere is a nearby water source beneath the Roosevelt Avenue Bridge and there is a train station beneath Flushing. It’s obvious that any construction near these sites would lead to rats moving into unwanted areas. QNS user QNS Resident Life and death in the World’s Borough BY ETHAN FELDER Th e spectacular defeat of the American Health Care Act last month turned the political class’s attention away from health care. Unfortunately, too many Queens residents do not have that privilege. Access to quality healthcare is out of reach. Th is is not a commonplace complaint. It is the diff erence between life and death for many. Since the 1960s, the word “segregation” has left our political vocabulary. It shouldn’t have. Every year we honor the legacy of Dr. King and the movement he built. Th e legacy of Jim Crow and the triumphs of Selma, the March on Washington and the Voting and Civil Rights Acts are etched into our national fabric. But the constructs and structures of racial injustice persist. Queens is proud to be the most diverse county in the country and the world. But a blind eye cannot be cast on the legacy of neighborhood racial segregation that remains with us to this day. Th is legacy has deep and ongoing eff ects on the rates of health insurance coverage and access to quality healthcare. Th e statistics are stark and undeniable. Children born to African-American women are more than twice as likely to die within their fi rst year of life as are children born to white women. Th is inequality of health outcomes remains irrespective of income or education level. Consider southeast Queens. Th e lack of hospitals in this predominately non-white portion of Queens has a real-life impact on community health. Our government realizes this. According to a report by the New York State Department of Health, southeast Queens has the lowest ratio of doctors to population in the entire borough. Th ere are 48 full-time equivalent (FTE) primary care doctors per 100,000 population in southeast Queens compared to 132 FTE’s per 100,000 in Flushing. Th e consequences of these healthcare deserts are as inevitable as they are disturbing. People of color are more likely to suff er and die from chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease. In addition, life-saving treatments are much less likely to be prescribed in a timely manner, if prescribed at all. Th ese critical healthcare realities do not usually make the nightly news but are profound to life and death in this borough. Th e same disparities exist in immigrant communities. Despite a public perception of an overly generous and profl igate Medicaid program in New York, services intertwined with life-saving care are oft en uncovered in cases of cancer and diabetes. Future funding cuts from Washington will put additional fi nancial strain on safety-net hospitals that serve immigrant communities. Th is matters not just for families but also for public health writ large. What can we do? Queens as a whole is underserved when it comes to healthcare services and hospitals. At the same time, we obviously need more primary care providers in minority neighborhoods. But ultimately it comes down to public and private sector investment in underserved communities. Only then will all residents of this borough we all call home live safely with access to healthy food, good jobs, and ample park space. We must come together and make our collective voice heard. Ethan Felder is a labor lawyer, resident of Forest Hills and co-founder of the Queens Solidarity Coalition. A LOOK BACK This 1939 photo courtesy of the state Department of Transportation shows the fi rst pedestrians crossing the Kosciuszko Bridge, which was at that time called the Meeker Avenue Bridge. Originally built across the Newtown Creek to link Meeker Avenue in Brooklyn with Van Dam Street in Queens, the span was later named for Polish war general Thaddeus Kosciuszko, who helped train American troops in the Revolutionary War. The walkway was eliminated as the bridge was incorporated into the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, and the bridge itself is being replaced by two new modern spans, the fi rst of which will open later this year. Send us your historic pictures of Queens by email to [email protected], or mail printed pictures to A Look Back, The Queens Courier, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361. All mailed pictures will be carefully returned to you.


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